Herring Gull and 2012 preview

Today was the first time I made it out to MNR in the new year. What is wrong with this year’s winter?? Where do you have to go these days to get a decent day of winter birding with crisp sub-zero temperatures? Winter birding is all about the sadistic pleasures of numb hands, frozen naughty bits and wiping snot off your nose with those new gloves you got for Christmas - what happened to all that? Anyhow, enough of this! The birding was slow, so slow I was tempted to count the Barred Owl that is kept in the rehab enclosure by the Visitor’s Center. Things picked up at the usual stop by Lake Needwood. Good numbers of ducks on the lake: Ring-necks and Hoodies. A pleasant surprise were 3 Black Vultures and 1 Herring Gull soaring over the lake. Both welcome additions to the patch list, which stands at 65 currently. By the way, Herring Gull was a new entry to the site’s ebird list – who would have thought. Let’s take a look at 2012 – what can realistically be expected from MNR this year. Well we still have a couple of weeks to turn up a Snowy Owl, of which many have been found pretty much everywhere in the nation apart from Maryland. The main resolution is to keep birding the site as regularly as work allows. If that means I get out there at least 2-3 times a month and I can crank up that rate during migration we should see some nice stuff and keep building that patch list. Apart from MNR, Montezuma in Upstate New York will be visited around once a month during the year. Montezuma is one hell of a place for birds and never disappoints. The site's personal list already stands at 113 and it will be interesting to see what we can add over the year. I am not sure if a trip to Germany will work out this year, but since I haven't gone over last year I should really try this Xmas. How great would it be to add some birding sites from Deutschland onto the blog.  A new year's resolution for the blog itself will be to keep the blog child-friendly and vulgar-free during those days of eventless summer-lull birding. Yes - we can!